The economy of Latin America and the Caribbean moves on a thin line between calm and inertia. The new report Economic outlook: Latin America and the Caribbean 2025 It projects regional growth of 2.3%, driven by the moderation of inflation and fiscal control. But the diagnosis is more complex: the challenge is not only to stabilize, but to transform. For growth to be worthwhile, it must be built on decent work, real opportunities and equity.
“2.3% is not a recovery; it is, rather, the ‘normal’ growth rate for Latin America and the Caribbean,” says William Maloney, the World Bank’s chief economist for the region. “The real challenge is to address long-term structural problems in education, infrastructure, innovation and government capabilities.”
The report recognizes progress in inflation control: “Brazil, Chile and Mexico began to raise interest rates long before advanced countries,” explains Maloney. “Although prices for services continue to rise, most countries are expected to reach their goals this year.”
But macro stability is not synonymous with social well-being. One in four Latin Americans still lives on less than $8.30 a day and inequality remains high. “Transfers to the poor have helped, but growth is the only long-term solution,” he says. “30% of companies report that they cannot expand due to lack of qualified workers. Public education systems, insufficient in many countries, slow down both the expansion of employment and the growth of family income.”
Here comes the World Bank: jobs are an important driver of growth. The report describes how, to transform the region, it is not enough for there to be jobs: it is essential that these jobs are of quality, that they offer opportunities for mobility, and that they are articulated with productive chains that scale. The narrative points out that only when employment becomes a bridge between productive potential and human well-being, does investment make sense.
Maloney introduces the concept of transformative entrepreneurs as an essential piece of this articulation between employment and innovation. “Up to 70% of entrepreneurs are microentrepreneurs with less than five workers; they provide satisfactory jobs, but they are not dynamic entrepreneurs. The challenge is to enable those who do create jobs and added value.”
For this transition to occur, the World Bank proposes a structural agenda that can boost employment: deepen financial markets, strengthen technical education, articulate training with productive demands. “Deepening financial markets requires streamlining mechanisms for resolving contractual disputes and insolvencies. Improving the skills of the workforce involves coordinating programs with the private sector and increasing the number of graduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” explains Maloney.
Some countries are already pointing towards that horizon: “Chile works with Start-Up Chile to make its entrepreneurs more global; Mexico has achieved greater integration in global value chains; Brazil invests more in R&D than most countries of its income level; and Costa Rica demonstrates how early investment in technical education can attract technology companies and generate local innovation.”
The conclusion is forceful: the region does not need to grow faster, but rather grow with employment, with productivity, with real opportunities. Turning stability into transformation is not just a macro exercise: it is reconnecting growth with dignity, initiative with possibility, education with the future. An urgent call for Latin America to value work as an engine of change.
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
